VICTORIOUS boss Stewart Kearn praised Hamworthy United for boxing clever in their derby date with Bournemouth Poppies – even if it wasn’t pretty.

Kearn likened his side’s 3-1 triumph at the County Ground to an ugly bout between a pair of old sluggers but insisted Hammers had deserved to land their late killer blow.

United were in cruise control thanks to Russell Cook’s well-taken first-half double but defensive indecision allowed Poppies defender Lewis Burgis to halve the deficit before the break.

The match grew increasingly fractious in the second half with referee Chris Mannering brandishing a total of seven yellow cards before Dan Blackburn made the points safe for United in stoppage time.

“Joe Bugner certainly springs to mind,” joked Kearn. “We knew it was likely to be a bit feisty and there was not a lot of time for anyone to play the ball, everything happened at 300 miles-per-hour.

“But, when we got the chance, we got the ball down and coped quite well. We were compact, strong and dealt with anything they had. We took our chances and created a little bit more than they did so it was probably a fair result.”

Poppies manager Ken Vaughan found it difficult to argue with Kearn’s assessment and bemoaned his side’s slow start to the season.

Vaughan said: “We can’t defend at the moment. We didn’t start playing until we were 2-0 down, it was a lacklustre start which came down to a lack of self belief.

“Hamworthy didn’t play much football but did what they had to and I would settle for that from us at the moment. It certainly wasn’t a good game to watch.”

Hammers: Ackerman, Penny, Cole, Donachy, Horlock, Corby, Allen, Blackburn, Osborne (Martin, 71), Cook, Swann (Hester, 52). Unused sub: Walker.

Poppies: Vaughan, Ayrton, Sullivan, Burgis, Doe, Saadi (Arthur, 84), Robinson, Bassiriki, Pekun, Fairbrother, Khider. Unused subs: Large, Meyer, Hales, Pearce.